Play.com have put up a listing for a new DVD, entitled ” Transformers The Classic Episodes“, for release on 30th April in the UK. It is not clear who is producing this DVD or what will be on it. The price is £5.99, which means there will only be a couple of episodes.

Most likely, it is a “best of” set from Metrodome will a couple of Generation 1 episodes or a DVD from Paramount with some Energon and Cybertron episodes.

Nevermore of the Trans-Europes Express Group has spoken with Hasbro Germany on the phone and provided some interesting its of information for European fans

A few months ago, Hasbro Germany’s current Transformers “brand manager” invited me and a few other fans to Hasbro Germany’s new offices. Unfortunately, the trip initially wouldn’t happen for time reasons, which is why I had an extended phone call with him today instead.Summary
– Apparently, European distribution in general is down to the US mother company, who decide on which toys will get released in Europe. The domestic branches don’t have much of a say in which individual products they will release and what the case assortments will be.
– Some toys being released in Europe in US packaging (cue Cybertron Starscream in the UK) is due to a combination of sudden demand and a shortage of products. US toys will be shipped to Europe and applied with a sticker, making it legal for the European market.
– The German TV airing of the Armada cartoon three years ago was apparently cut short (20 episodes only) for concerns about “too much violence”. Hasbro didn’t agree with that decision either, but the TV station was very serious about it.
– The Cybertron toy line will be fully released in Germany (i.e. anything that’s available in Europe will also come out in Germany). All size classes will come out (not sure about Supreme Starscream, see below for why).
– High end collectors’ items are not considered viable for the German market. As a result, 20th Anniversary Prime might not come out here.
– The movie toyline is already in production. Some people at Hasbro Germany have even seen animatics of the movie.
– The Hasbro Germany guy described the aesthetics of the movie characters as a “quantum leap” as compared to what we’ve been used to so far, but also admitted that some old school fans might be disappointed.
– There might be a sneak preview of the movie toyline in Hasbro Germany’s offices later this year. No photos will be allowed.
– Hasbro Germany hope that the movie line will re-ignite interest in Transformers in Germany.
– Hasbro consider LEGO their biggest competitor for the “Boys Toys” market at least in Europe/Germany.
– Hasbro Germany appear to be VERY eager to cooperate with the fandom. They’re willing to participate in contests, and also consider asking fans for help with background information for media coverage.
– As far as Hasbro Germany’s PR department is concerned, the live-action TF movie will be the first live action movie based on a toy line. When I mentioned the “Masters of the Universe” movie from the 80s, he said he’ll blissfully ignore that one.
– There’s one more thing I won’t discuss in here – but if it does indeed pan out, Hasbro Germany will earn a lot of respect for their efforts.

Transformers Energon The Battle for Energon is out today on DVD and VHS in the UK and contains the first 4 episodes (on DVD) of the Energon series. The VHS edition only contains 2 episodes. It is uncertain at this time if the episodes are the re-edited ones that were on the North American DVDs or the original that aired on Toonami.

I received an email today from Toonami UK explaining why they skipped episode 33. This was after Voicebox gave their explanation for the missing episode. It seems that Hasbro decided not to produce the episode. Also there is news on when they plan to air the rest of Energon in the UK. Here’s the email

Hello

Episode 33 was skipped because Hasbro, the company who distribute the show
decided to keep episode 33 back for the new series which will launch on Toonami
in March 2005.
The current series that Toonami are showing runs from episode 27-39, with the
exception of 33. They are on everyday at 4pm.

Thank you for your email,

Toonami.

It is unclear whether Hasbro will move episode 33 to fit in later in the series or just leave it out all together.

Hasbro have update transformers.com with images of Quickstrike and Sixshot (both due January 2005 in the USA) from the Transformers Energon line and of Battle Ravage (due February 2005) from the Alternators line. See the images here.

Today, 7th August 2004, the Energon cartoon started airing in the UK. Instead of airing episode 1 Cybertron City, it was episode 2 Energon Stars. If you remember, episode 1 aired back May as a preview to the show. The TV listings say that episode 1 was due today, episode 2 tomorrow and episode 3 next Saturday but it is likely these are all one out. All the shows are at 10 30am on Toomani.

To sum this up, they will NOT be releasing Visionaries or Transformers Headmasters at this time. This also means they will not be releasing Masterforce, Victory, Zone or Scramble City in the near future. Rhino will be releasing Volumes 4 and 5 of Transformers Armada and season 3 of Beast Wars on 24th August. They are however, unsure on Armada and Beast Machines boxsets.

Paramount, who now own the worldwide distribution rights to Transformers Energon, will release two dvds, subtitled “The Battle For Energon” and “The Return Of Megatron” in October, by which time these Energon episodes will have hopefully have aired in the UK.

This could all be good news for Metrodome, having already released Visionaries (region 2) and planning on releasing Headmasters, Masterforce and Victory, before any release in the USA.

tformers.com has but up an image of the most recent ToyFare cover, showing an eighties revival, featuring GI Joe, He-Man and Transformers. There is an Energon figure on the cover. Doesn’t it look familiar? Click (here comes my first foray into the world of HTML. Wish me luck) here

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